September 4, 2011

100 Days of TMC-Congress Govt: A False Start

KOLKATA: WHAT are the high points of the first
100 days of the TMC-Congress government in West Bengal?

Organised terror against the opposition, which
has claimed lives of 33 Left Front activists, injured hundreds; 684 women were
assaulted physically, 508 molested and 23 raped; nearly 40,000 had to leave
their homes under threat. An unprecedented extortion campaign is going on in
villages.

Campaign of political vendetta, using state
police forces for that purpose. More than 1500 false cases have been registered
against the CPI(M) leaders and activists. CPI(M) leaders, including MLA and
former minister Sushanto Ghosh, have been put in prison. CPI(M) state committee
members have been targeted too.

Land grabbing and comprehensive attack on
panchayats.

A unique budget without budgeting, without
finalisation of sources of revenue and expenditure.

Refusal to discuss budgets of important
ministries, including home, in the assembly. The chief minister herself is
in-charge of these ministries.

Reversal of decisions, hastily announced by the
chief minister and other ministers. One of the more important one is retarding
on the re-establishment of the legislative council in the state.

Lots of nominated committees with the TMC and
pro-TMC people, presiding over the jeopardising of normal governmental
functions.

DARJEELING

As per the government’s claim, peace has been restored
in Darjeeling! But the reality is that the process of peace restoration,
initiated by the government, has been done at the cost of recognising the term
Gorkhaland.

The process to establish Gorkhaland Territorial
Area has started. The survey will be conducted in order to include the new
areas into the said territory.

SINGUR

The Singur problem remains and has become much
complicated with the new government’s decision to return the lands to the
unwilling farmers with the force of the special legislation. The whole
controversy has aggravated since it has gone to the court.

JANGAL MAHAL

The chief minister had earlier declared that
there will be 23 new ration shops in jangal mahal area to ensure food
distribution. Unfortunately, not a single one has been established in West
Midnapore district, where 11 of 23 blocks of jangal mahal are situated.

The government has a proposal for the creation
of 10,000 Special Police Officers to tackle the 'Maoist' situation in jangal
mahal like the Chhattisgarh government. In this context the government has
completely dumped the Supreme Court’s order against the creation of SPOs to
tackle the 'Maoist' problems.

Meanwhile, the 'Maoists' have started to
regroup.

RURAL DEVELOPMENT

The performance of TMC-led government in the
specific sectors like the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee
Act is not only poor but also much lower than the performance made during the
tenure of the Left Front government. The contrast with the tenure of the Left
Front government can be easily seen. The government has claimed that a total
number of 1 crore 59 lakh working days have been created whereas the same was
15 crore at the time of the Left Front government.

EMPLOYMENT

The document, celebrating 90 days, published by
the new government has proclaimed that it has already provided jobs for
2,79,286 people in its first months. The break up shows that out of those jobs
2 lakh jobs have been given in the private sector and the 79,286 have been
provided in the government offices. The government did not bother to disclose
the names of the private sector where the jobs have been given and the
government sector break up reveals that most of the posts have been proposed
and created. So, as yet the government has not provided any jobs.

URBAN DEVELOPMENT

Most of the works cited in the book released by
the TMC-led government are the repetition of the projects and works undertaken
by the government of West Bengal during the tenure of the Left Front.

The modernisation of the Coochbihar Airport and
the commencement of Kolkata-Coochbihar flight - in reality, the whole
infrastructural work, was done during the time of the Left Front government and
the project was waiting for its official inauguration.

The draft policy for the street vendors was also
introduced during the time of the Left Front government, although it is falsely
cited as a success of the new government.

A project of Rs 500 crore for job generation and
a project of Rs 800 crore for building urban houses, has been falsely claimed
by the TMC government as its success. They were also the projects taken up by
the Left Front government.